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Clojure Data Analysis
Cookbook
Second Edition

Dive into data analysis with Clojure through over 100

practical recipes for every stage of the analysis and
collection process

Eric Rochester

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Clojure Data Analysis Cookbook
Second Edition

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the
publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without
warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers
and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly
or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: March 2013

Second edition: January 2015

Production reference: 1220115

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78439-029-7

www.packtpub.com
 Credits

Author Project Coordinator

Eric Rochester Neha Thakur

Reviewers Proofreaders
Vitomir Kovanovic Ameesha Green
Muktabh Mayank Srivastava Joel T. Johnson
Federico Tomassetti Samantha Lyon

Commissioning Editor Indexer

Ashwin Nair Priya Sane

Acquisition Editor Graphics

Sam Wood Sheetal Aute
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Content Development Editor
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Nitesh Thakur
Technical Editor
Ryan Kochery Cover Work
Nitesh Thakur
Copy Editors
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 About the Author

Eric Rochester enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with his wife and kids. When
he’s not doing these things, he programs in a variety of languages and platforms, including
websites and systems in Python, and libraries for linguistics and statistics in C#. Currently,
he is exploring functional programming languages, including Clojure and Haskell. He works
at Scholars’ Lab in the library at the University of Virginia, helping humanities professors and
graduate students realize their digitally informed research agendas. He is also the author of
Mastering Clojure Data Analysis, Packt Publishing.

I’d like to thank everyone. My technical reviewers proved invaluable.

Also, thank you to the editorial staff at Packt Publishing. This book is
much stronger because of all of their feedback, and any remaining
deficiencies are mine alone.

A special thanks to Jackie, Melina, and Micah. They’ve been patient and
supportive while I worked on this project. It is, in every way, for them.
 About the Reviewers

Vitomir Kovanovic is a PhD student at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh,

Edinburgh, UK. He received an MSc degree in computer science and software engineering
in 2011, and BSc in information systems and business administration in 2009 from the
University of Belgrade, Serbia. His research interests include learning analytics, educational
data mining, and online education. He is a member of the Society for Learning Analytics
Research and a member of program committees of several conferences and journals in
technology-enhanced learning. In his PhD research, he focuses on the use of trace data for
understanding the effects of technology use on the quality of the social learning process and
learning outcomes. For more information, visit http://vitomir.kovanovic.info/

Muktabh Mayank Srivastava is a data scientist and the cofounder of ParallelDots.com.

Previously, he helped in solving many complex data analysis and machine learning problems
for clients from different domains such as healthcare, retail, procurement, automation,
Bitcoin, social recommendation engines, geolocation fact-finding, customer profiling,
and so on.

His new venture is ParallelDots. It is a tool that allows any content archive to be presented
in a story using advanced techniques of NLP and machine learning. For publishers and
bloggers, it automatically creates a timeline of any event using their archive and presents
it in an interactive, intuitive, and easy-to-navigate interface on their webpage. You can find
him on LinkedIn at http://in.linkedin.com/in/muktabh/ and on Twitter at
@muktabh / @ParallelDots.
Federico Tomassetti has been programming since he was a child and has a PhD
in software engineering. He works as a consultant on model-driven development and
domain-specific languages, writes technical articles, teaches programming, and works as
a full-stack software engineer.

He has experience working in Italy, Germany, and Ireland, and he is currently working
at Groupon International.

You can read about his projects on http://federico-tomassetti.it/ or

https://github.com/ftomassetti/.
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 Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Importing Data for Analysis 7
Introduction 7
Creating a new project 8
Reading CSV data into Incanter datasets 9
Reading JSON data into Incanter datasets 12
Reading data from Excel with Incanter 14
Reading data from JDBC databases 15
Reading XML data into Incanter datasets 18
Scraping data from tables in web pages 21
Scraping textual data from web pages 25
Reading RDF data 29
Querying RDF data with SPARQL 33
Aggregating data from different formats 38
Chapter 2: Cleaning and Validating Data 45
Introduction 45
Cleaning data with regular expressions 46
Maintaining consistency with synonym maps 48
Identifying and removing duplicate data 50
Regularizing numbers 53
Calculating relative values 55
Parsing dates and times 57
Lazily processing very large data sets 59
Sampling from very large data sets 61
Fixing spelling errors 64
Parsing custom data formats 68
Validating data with Valip 70
Table of Contents

Chapter 3: Managing Complexity with Concurrent Programming 73

Introduction 74
Managing program complexity with STM 75
Managing program complexity with agents 79
Getting better performance with commute 82
Combining agents and STM 83
Maintaining consistency with ensure 85
Introducing safe side effects into the STM 88
Maintaining data consistency with validators 91
Monitoring processing with watchers 94
Debugging concurrent programs with watchers 96
Recovering from errors in agents 98
Managing large inputs with sized queues 100
Chapter 4: Improving Performance with Parallel Programming 101
Introduction 102
Parallelizing processing with pmap 102
Parallelizing processing with Incanter 106
Partitioning Monte Carlo simulations for better pmap performance 107
Finding the optimal partition size with simulated annealing 112
Combining function calls with reducers 116
Parallelizing with reducers 118
Generating online summary statistics for data streams with reducers 121
Using type hints 124
Benchmarking with Criterium 127
Chapter 5: Distributed Data Processing with Cascalog 131
Introduction 131
Initializing Cascalog and Hadoop for distributed processing 133
Querying data with Cascalog 137
Distributing data with Apache HDFS 138
Parsing CSV files with Cascalog 141
Executing complex queries with Cascalog 143
Aggregating data with Cascalog 146
Defining new Cascalog operators 148
Composing Cascalog queries 151
Transforming data with Cascalog 153

ii
 Table of Contents

Chapter 6: Working with Incanter Datasets 155

Introduction 156
Loading Incanter's sample datasets 156
Loading Clojure data structures into datasets 157
Viewing datasets interactively with view 159
Converting datasets to matrices 161
Using infix formulas in Incanter 163
Selecting columns with $ 165
Selecting rows with $ 167
Filtering datasets with $where 169
Grouping data with $group-by 170
Saving datasets to CSV and JSON 172
Projecting from multiple datasets with $join 173
Chapter 7: Statistical Data Analysis with Incanter 177
Introduction 177
Generating summary statistics with $rollup 178
Working with changes in values 180
Scaling variables to simplify variable relationships 182
Working with time series data with Incanter Zoo 184
Smoothing variables to decrease variation 186
Validating sample statistics with bootstrapping 189
Modeling linear relationships 192
Modeling non-linear relationships 195
Modeling multinomial Bayesian distributions 199
Finding data errors with Benford's law 202
Chapter 8: Working with Mathematica and R 207
Introduction 207
Setting up Mathematica to talk to Clojuratica for Mac OS X and Linux 208
Setting up Mathematica to talk to Clojuratica for Windows 212
Calling Mathematica functions from Clojuratica 214
Sending matrixes to Mathematica from Clojuratica 215
Evaluating Mathematica scripts from Clojuratica 217
Creating functions from Mathematica 218
Setting up R to talk to Clojure 219
Calling R functions from Clojure 221
Passing vectors into R 222
Evaluating R files from Clojure 224
Plotting in R from Clojure 226

iii
Table of Contents

Chapter 9: Clustering, Classifying, and Working with Weka 229

Introduction 229
Loading CSV and ARFF files into Weka 230
Filtering, renaming, and deleting columns in Weka datasets 232
Discovering groups of data using K-Means clustering 235
Finding hierarchical clusters in Weka 241
Clustering with SOMs in Incanter 244
Classifying data with decision trees 246
Classifying data with the Naive Bayesian classifier 249
Classifying data with support vector machines 251
Finding associations in data with the Apriori algorithm 254
Chapter 10: Working with Unstructured and Textual Data 257
Introduction 258
Tokenizing text 258
Finding sentences 259
Focusing on content words with stoplists 260
Getting document frequencies 262
Scaling document frequencies by document size 264
Scaling document frequencies with TF-IDF 266
Finding people, places, and things with Named Entity Recognition 270
Mapping documents to a sparse vector space representation 272
Performing topic modeling with MALLET 274
Performing naïve Bayesian classification with MALLET 277
Chapter 11: Graphing in Incanter 281
Introduction 281
Creating scatter plots with Incanter 282
Graphing non-numeric data in bar charts 284
Creating histograms with Incanter 287
Creating function plots with Incanter 288
Adding equations to Incanter charts 290
Adding lines to scatter charts 292
Customizing charts with JFreeChart 293
Customizing chart colors and styles 296
Saving Incanter graphs to PNG 298
Using PCA to graph multi-dimensional data 299
Creating dynamic charts with Incanter 302

iv
 Table of Contents

Chapter 12: Creating Charts for the Web 305

Introduction 305
Serving data with Ring and Compojure 306
Creating HTML with Hiccup 311
Setting up to use ClojureScript 313
Creating scatter plots with NVD3 317
Creating bar charts with NVD3 323
Creating histograms with NVD3 326
Creating time series charts with D3 329
Visualizing graphs with force-directed layouts 334
Creating interactive visualizations with D3 339
Index 345

v
 Preface
Welcome to the second edition of Clojure Data Analysis Cookbook! It seems that books
become obsolete almost as quickly as software does, so here we have the opportunity to
keep things up-to-date and useful.

Moreover, the state of the art of data analysis is also still evolving and changing. The
techniques and technologies are being refined and improved. Hopefully, this book will capture
some of that. I've also added a new chapter on how to work with unstructured textual data.

In spite of these changes, some things have stayed the same. Clojure has further proven
itself to be an excellent environment to work with data. As a member of the lisp family of
languages, it inherits a flexibility and power that is hard to match. The concurrency and
parallelization features have further proven themselves as great tools for developing
software and analyzing data.

Clojure's usefulness for data analysis is further improved by a number of strong libraries.
Incanter provides a practical environment to work with data and perform statistical analysis.
Cascalog is an easy-to-use wrapper over Hadoop and Cascading. Finally, when you're ready
to publish your results, ClojureScript, an implementation of Clojure that generates JavaScript,
can help you to visualize your data in an effective and persuasive way.

Moreover, Clojure runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), so any libraries written for Java are
available too. This gives Clojure an incredible amount of breadth and power.

I hope that this book will give you the tools and techniques you need to get answers from
your data.
Preface

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Importing Data for Analysis, covers how to read data from a variety of sources,
including CSV files, web pages, and linked semantic web data.

Chapter 2, Cleaning and Validating Data, presents strategies and implementations to

normalize dates, fix spelling, and work with large datasets. Getting data into a useable shape
is an important, but often overlooked, stage of data analysis.

Chapter 3, Managing Complexity with Concurrent Programming, covers Clojure's concurrency

features and how you can use them to simplify your programs.

Chapter 4, Improving Performance with Parallel Programming, covers how to use Clojure's
parallel processing capabilities to speed up the processing of data.

Chapter 5, Distributed Data Processing with Cascalog, covers how to use Cascalog as a
wrapper over Hadoop and the Cascading library to process large amounts of data distributed
over multiple computers.

Chapter 6, Working with Incanter Datasets, covers the basics of working with Incanter
datasets. Datasets are the core data structures used by Incanter, and understanding them is
necessary in order to use Incanter effectively.

Chapter 7, Statistical Data Analysis with Incanter, covers a variety of statistical processes and
tests used in data analysis. Some of these are quite simple, such as generating summary
statistics. Others are more complex, such as performing linear regressions and auditing data
with Benford's Law.

Chapter 8, Working with Mathematica and R, talks about how to set up Clojure in order to talk
to Mathematica or R. These are powerful data analysis systems, and we might want to use
them sometimes. This chapter will show you how to get these systems to work together, as
well as some tasks that you can perform once they are communicating.

Chapter 9, Clustering, Classifying, and Working with Weka, covers more advanced machine
learning techniques. In this chapter, we'll primarily use the Weka machine learning library.
Some recipes will discuss how to use it and the data structures its built on, while other recipes
will demonstrate machine learning algorithms.

Chapter 10, Working with Unstructured and Textual Data, looks at tools and techniques used
to extract information from the reams of unstructured, textual data.

Chapter 11, Graphing in Incanter, shows you how to generate graphs and other visualizations
in Incanter. These can be important for exploring and learning about your data and also for
publishing and presenting your results.

Chapter 12, Creating Charts for the Web, shows you how to set up a simple web application in
order to present findings from data analysis. It will include a number of recipes that leverage
the powerful D3 visualization library.
2
 Preface

What you need for this book

One piece of software required for this book is the Java Development Kit (JDK), which you
can obtain from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/
index.html. JDK is necessary to run and develop on the Java platform.

The other major piece of software that you'll need is Leiningen 2, which you can download
and install from http://leiningen.org/. Leiningen 2 is a tool used to manage Clojure
projects and their dependencies. It has become the de facto standard project tool in the
Clojure community.

Throughout this book, we'll use a number of other Clojure and Java libraries, including Clojure
itself. Leiningen will take care of downloading these for us as we need them.

You'll also need a text editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE). If you already have
a text editor of your choice, you can probably use it. See http://clojure.org/getting_
started for tips and plugins for using your particular favorite environment. If you don't have a
preference, I'd suggest that you take a look at using Eclipse with Counterclockwise. There are
instructions to this set up at https://code.google.com/p/counterclockwise/.

That is all that's required. However, at various places throughout the book, some recipes will
access other software. The recipes in Chapter 8, Working with Mathematica and R, that are
related to Mathematica will require Mathematica, obviously, and those that are related to R
will require that. However, these programs won't be used in the rest of the book, and whether
you're interested in those recipes might depend on whether you already have this software.

Who this book is for

This book is for programmers or data scientists who are familiar with Clojure and want to use
it in their data analysis processes. This isn't a tutorial on Clojure—there are already a number
of excellent introductory books out there—so you'll need to be familiar with the language,
but you don't need to be an expert.

Likewise, you don't have to be an expert on data analysis, although you should probably be
familiar with its tasks, processes, and techniques. While you might be able to glean enough
from these recipes to get started with, for it to be truly effective, you'll want to get a more
thorough introduction to this field.

3
Preface

Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of
information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions,
pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Now, there
will be a new subdirectory named getting-data.

A block of code is set as follows:

(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:description "FIXME: write description"
:url "http://example.com/FIXME"
:license {:name "Eclipse Public License"
:url "http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html"}
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]])

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or
items are set in bold:
(defn watch-debugging
[input-file]
(let [reader (agent
(seque
(mapcat
lazy-read-csv
input-files)))
caster (agent nil)
sink (agent [])
counter (ref 0)
done (ref false)]
(add-watch caster :counter
(partial watch-caster counter))
(add-watch caster :debug debug-watch)
(send reader read-row caster sink done)
(wait-for-it 250 done)
{:results @sink
:count-watcher @counter}))

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$ lein new getting-data
Generating a project called getting-data based on the default template.
To see other templates (app, lein plugin, etc), try lein help new.

4
 Preface

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen,
in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Take a look at the
Hadoop website for the Getting Started documentation of your version. Get a single
node setup working".

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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5
Preface

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6
 Importing Data for
1
Analysis
In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:

ff Creating a new project

ff Reading CSV data into Incanter datasets
ff Reading JSON data into Incanter datasets
ff Reading data from Excel with Incanter
ff Reading data from JDBC databases
ff Reading XML data into Incanter datasets
ff Scraping data from tables in web pages
ff Scraping textual data from web pages
ff Reading RDF data
ff Querying RDF data with SPARQL
ff Aggregating data from different formats

Introduction
There's not much data analysis that can be done without data, so the first step in any project
is to evaluate the data we have and the data that we need. Once we have some idea of what
we'll need, we have to figure out how to get it.
Importing Data for Analysis

Many of the recipes in this chapter and in this book use Incanter (http://incanter.org/)
to import the data and target Incanter datasets. Incanter is a library that is used for statistical
analysis and graphics in Clojure (similar to R) an open source language for statistical
computing (http://www.r-project.org/). Incanter might not be suitable for every task
(for example, we'll use the Weka library for machine learning later) but it is still an important
part of our toolkit for doing data analysis in Clojure. This chapter has a collection of recipes
that can be used to gather data and make it accessible to Clojure.

For the very first recipe, we'll take a look at how to start a new project. We'll start with very
simple formats such as comma-separated values (CSV) and move into reading data from
relational databases using JDBC. We'll examine more complicated data sources, such as
web scraping and linked data (RDF).

Creating a new project

Over the course of this book, we're going to use a number of third-party libraries and external
dependencies. We will need a tool to download them and track them. We also need a tool to
set up the environment and start a REPL (read-eval-print-loop or interactive interpreter) that
can access our code or to execute our program. REPLs allow you to program interactively. It's a
great environment for exploratory programming, irrespective of whether that means exploring
library APIs or exploring data.

We'll use Leiningen for this (http://leiningen.org/). This has become a standard
package automation and management system.

Getting ready
Visit the Leiningen site and download the lein script. This will download the Leiningen JAR
file when it's needed. The instructions are clear, and it's a simple process.

How to do it...
To generate a new project, use the lein new command, passing the name of the project
to it:
$ lein new getting-data
Generating a project called getting-data based on the default template.
To see other templates (app, lein plugin, etc), try lein help new.

There will be a new subdirectory named getting-data. It will contain files with stubs for the
getting-data.core namespace and for tests.

8
 Chapter 1

How it works...
The new project directory also contains a file named project.clj. This file contains
metadata about the project, such as its name, version, license, and more. It also contains
a list of the dependencies that our code will use, as shown in the following snippet. The
specifications that this file uses allow it to search Maven repositories and directories of
Clojure libraries (Clojars, https://clojars.org/) in order to download the project's
dependencies. Thus, it integrates well with Java's own packaging system as developed with
Maven (http://maven.apache.org/).
(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:description "FIXME: write description"
:url "http://example.com/FIXME"
:license {:name "Eclipse Public License"
:url "http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html"}
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]])

In the Getting ready section of each recipe, we'll see the libraries that we need to list in the
:dependencies section of this file. Then, when you run any lein command, it will download
the dependencies first.

Reading CSV data into Incanter datasets

One of the simplest data formats is comma-separated values (CSV), and you'll find that
it's everywhere. Excel reads and writes CSV directly, as do most databases. Also, because
it's really just plain text, it's easy to generate CSV files or to access them from any
programming language.

Getting ready
First, let's make sure that we have the correct libraries loaded. Here's how the project
Leiningen (https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen) project.clj file should
look (although you might be able to use more up-to-date versions of the dependencies):
(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]
[incanter "1.5.5"]])

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purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.
com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

9
Importing Data for Analysis

Also, in your REPL or your file, include these lines:

(use 'incanter.core
'incanter.io)

Finally, downloaded a list of rest area locations from POI Factory at http://www.poi-
factory.com/node/6643. The data is in a file named data/RestAreasCombined(Ver.
BN).csv. The version designation might be different though, as the file is updated. You'll also
need to register on the site in order to download the data. The file contains this data, which is
the location and description of the rest stops along the highway:
-67.834062,46.141129,"REST AREA-FOLLOW SIGNS SB I-95 MM305","RR, PT,
Pets, HF"
-67.845906,46.138084,"REST AREA-FOLLOW SIGNS NB I-95 MM305","RR, PT,
Pets, HF"
-68.498471,45.659781,"TURNOUT NB I-95 MM249","Scenic Vista-NO
FACILITIES"
-68.534061,45.598464,"REST AREA SB I-95 MM240","RR, PT, Pets, HF"

In the project directory, we have to create a subdirectory named data and place the file in
this subdirectory.

I also created a copy of this file with a row listing the names of the columns and named it
RestAreasCombined(Ver.BN)-headers.csv.

How to do it…
1. Now, use the incanter.io/read-dataset function in your REPL:
user=> (read-dataset "data/RestAreasCombined(Ver.BJ).csv")

| :col0 | :col1 | :col2

| :col3 |
|------------+-----------+--------------------------------------+-
---------------------------|
| -67.834062 | 46.141129 | REST AREA-FOLLOW SIGNS SB I-95 MM305 |
RR, PT, Pets, HF |
| -67.845906 | 46.138084 | REST AREA-FOLLOW SIGNS NB I-95 MM305 |
RR, PT, Pets, HF |
| -68.498471 | 45.659781 | TURNOUT NB I-95 MM249 |
Scenic Vista-NO FACILITIES |
| -68.534061 | 45.598464 | REST AREA SB I-95 MM240 |
RR, PT, Pets, HF |
| -68.539034 | 45.594001 | REST AREA NB I-95 MM240 |
RR, PT, Pets, HF |
…

10
 Chapter 1

2. If we have a header row in the CSV file, then we include :header true in the call to
read-dataset:

user=> (read-dataset "data/RestAreasCombined(Ver.BJ)-headers.csv"

:header true)

| :longitude | :latitude | :name

| :codes |
|------------+-----------+--------------------------------------+-
---------------------------|
| -67.834062 | 46.141129 | REST AREA-FOLLOW SIGNS SB I-95 MM305 |
RR, PT, Pets, HF |
| -67.845906 | 46.138084 | REST AREA-FOLLOW SIGNS NB I-95 MM305 |
RR, PT, Pets, HF |
| -68.498471 | 45.659781 | TURNOUT NB I-95 MM249 |
Scenic Vista-NO FACILITIES |
| -68.534061 | 45.598464 | REST AREA SB I-95 MM240 |
RR, PT, Pets, HF |
| -68.539034 | 45.594001 | REST AREA NB I-95 MM240 |
RR, PT, Pets, HF |
…

How it works…
Together, Clojure and Incanter make a lot of common tasks easy, which is shown in the How to
do it section of this recipe.

We've taken some external data, in this case from a CSV file, and loaded it into an Incanter
dataset. In Incanter, a dataset is a table, similar to a sheet in a spreadsheet or a database
table. Each column has one field of data, and each row has an observation of data. Some
columns will contain string data (all of the columns in this example did), some will contain
dates, and some will contain numeric data. Incanter tries to automatically detect when a
column contains numeric data and coverts it to a Java int or double. Incanter takes away a
lot of the effort involved with importing data.

There's more…
For more information about Incanter datasets, see Chapter 6, Working with Incanter Datasets.

11
Importing Data for Analysis

Reading JSON data into Incanter datasets

Another data format that's becoming increasingly popular is JavaScript Object Notation
(JSON, http://json.org/). Like CSV, this is a plain text format, so it's easy for programs to
work with. It provides more information about the data than CSV does, but at the cost of being
more verbose. It also allows the data to be structured in more complicated ways, such as
hierarchies or sequences of hierarchies.

Because JSON is a much richer data model than CSV, we might need to transform the
data. In that case, we can just pull out the information we're interested in and flatten the
nested maps before we pass it to Incanter. In this recipe, however, we'll just work with fairly
simple data structures.

Getting ready
First, here are the contents of the Leiningen project.clj file:
(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]
[incanter "1.5.5"]
[org.clojure/data.json "0.2.5"]])

Use these libraries in your REPL or program (inside an ns form):

(require '[incanter.core :as i]
'[clojure.data.json :as json]
'[clojure.java.io :as io])
(import '[java.io EOFException])

Moreover, you need some data. For this, I have a file named delicious-rss-214k.json
and placed it in the folder named data. It contains a number of top-level JSON objects.
For example, the first one starts like this:
{
"guidislink": false,
"link": "http://designreviver.com/tips/a-collection-of-wordpress-
tutorials-tips-and-themes/",
"title_detail": {
"base": "http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/
recent?min=1&count=100",
"value": "A Collection of Wordpress Tutorials, Tips and Themes
| Design Reviver",
"language": null,
"type": "text/plain"
},
"author": "mccarrd4",
…

12
 Chapter 1

You can download this data file from Infochimps at http://www.ericrochester.com/

clj-data-analysis/data/delicious-rss-214k.json.xz. You'll need to decompress
it into the data directory.

How to do it…
Once everything's in place, we'll need a couple of functions to make it easier to handle the
multiple JSON objects at the top level of the file:

1. We'll need a function that attempts to call a function on an instance of java.

io.Reader and returns nil if there's an EOFException, in case there's a
problem reading the file:
(defn test-eof [reader f]
(try
(f reader)
(catch EOFException e
nil)))

2. Now, we'll build on this to repeatedly parse a JSON document from an instance of
java.io.Reader. We do this by repeatedly calling test-eof until eof or until it
returns nil, accumulating the returned values as we go:
(defn read-all-json [reader]
(loop [accum []]
(if-let [record (test-eof reader json/read)]
(recur (conj accum record))
accum)))

3. Finally, we'll perform the previously mentioned two steps to read the data from
the file:
(def d (i/to-dataset
(with-open
[r (io/reader
"data/delicious-rss-214k.json")]
(read-all-json r))))

This binds d to a new dataset that contains the information read in from the JSON documents.

13
Importing Data for Analysis

How it works…
Similar to all Lisp's (List Processing), Clojure is usually read from the inside out and from
right to left. Let's break it down. clojure.java.io/reader opens the file for reading.
read-all-json parses all of the JSON documents in the file into a sequence. In this case, it
returns a vector of the maps. incanter.core/to-dataset takes a sequence of maps and
returns an Incanter dataset. This dataset will use the keys in the maps as column names, and
it will convert the data values into a matrix. Actually, to-dataset can accept many different
data structures. Try doc to-dataset in the REPL (doc shows the documentation string
attached to the function), or see the Incanter documentation at http://data-sorcery.
org/contents/ for more information.

Reading data from Excel with Incanter

We've seen how Incanter makes a lot of common data-processing tasks very simple, and
reading an Excel spreadsheet is another example of this.

Getting ready
First, make sure that your Leiningen project.clj file contains the right dependencies:
(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]
[incanter "1.5.5"]"]])

Also, make sure that you've loaded those packages into the REPL or script:
(use 'incanter.core
'incanter.excel)

Find the Excel spreadsheet you want to work on. The file name of my spreadsheet is data/
small-sample-header.xls, as shown in the following screenshot. You can download this
from http://www.ericrochester.com/clj-data-analysis/data/small-sample-
header.xls.

14
 Chapter 1

How to do it…
Now, all you need to do is call incanter.excel/read-xls:
user=> (read-xls "data/small-sample-header.xls")

| given-name | surname | relation |

|------------+---------+-------------|
| Gomez | Addams | father |
| Morticia | Addams | mother |
| Pugsley | Addams | brother |

How it works…
This can read standard Excel files (.xls) and the XML-based file format introduced in
Excel 2003 (.xlsx).

Reading data from JDBC databases

Reading data from a relational database is only slightly more complicated than reading from
Excel, and much of the extra complication involves connecting to the database.

Fortunately, there's a Clojure-contributed package that sits on top of JDBC (the Java database
connector API, http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/jdbc/index.
html) and makes working with databases much easier. In this example, we'll load a table
from an SQLite database (http://www.sqlite.org/), which stores the database in a
single file.

Getting ready
First, list the dependencies in your Leiningen project.clj file. We will also need to include
the database driver library. For this example, it is org.xerial/sqlite-jdbc:
(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]
[incanter "1.5.5"]
[org.clojure/java.jdbc "0.3.3"]
[org.xerial/sqlite-jdbc "3.7.15-M1"]])

Then, load the modules into your REPL or script file:

(require '[incanter.core :as i]
'[clojure.java.jdbc :as j])

15
Importing Data for Analysis

Finally, get the database connection information. I have my data in an SQLite database file
named data/small-sample.sqlite, as shown in the following screenshot. You can
download this from http://www.ericrochester.com/clj-data-analysis/data/
small-sample.sqlite.

How to do it…
Loading the data is not complicated, but we'll make it easier with a wrapper function:

1. We'll create a function that takes a database connection map and a table name and
returns a dataset created from this table:
(defn load-table-data
"This loads the data from a database table."
[db table-name]
(i/to-dataset
(j/query db (str "SELECT * FROM " table-name ";"))))

16
 Chapter 1

2. Next, we define a database map with the connection parameters suitable for
our database:
(defdb {:subprotocol "sqlite"
:subname "data/small-sample.sqlite"
:classname "org.sqlite.JDBC"})

3. Finally, call load-table-data with db and a table name as a symbol or string:

user=> (load-table-data db 'people)

| :relation | :surname | :given_name |

|-------------+----------+-------------|
| father | Addams | Gomez |
| mother | Addams | Morticia |
| brother | Addams | Pugsley |||
…

How it works…
The load-table-data function passes the database connection information directly
through to clojure.java.jdbc/query.query. It creates an SQL query that returns all
of the fields in the table that is passed in. Each row of the result is a sequence of hashes
mapping column names to data values. This sequence is wrapped in a dataset by
incanter.core/to-dataset.

See also
Connecting to different database systems using JDBC isn't necessarily a difficult task,
but it's dependent on which database you wish to connect to. Oracle has a tutorial for
how to work with JDBC at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/jdbc/
basics, and the documentation for the clojure.java.jdbc library has some good
information too (http://clojure.github.com/java.jdbc/). If you're trying to find
out what the connection string looks like for a database system, there are lists available
online. The list at http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Java/0340__Database/
AListofJDBCDriversconnectionstringdrivername.htm includes the major drivers.

17
Importing Data for Analysis

Reading XML data into Incanter datasets

One of the most popular formats for data is XML. Some people love it, while some hate it.
However, almost everyone has to deal with it at some point. While Clojure can use Java's
XML libraries, it also has its own package which provides a more natural way to work with
XML in Clojure.

Getting ready
First, include these dependencies in your Leiningen project.clj file:
(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]
[incanter "1.5.5"]])

Use these libraries in your REPL or program:

(require '[incanter.core :as i]
'[clojure.xml :as xml]
'[clojure.zip :as zip])

Then, find a data file. I visited the website for the Open Data Catalog for Washington, D.C.
(http://data.octo.dc.gov/), and downloaded the data for the 2013 crime incidents.
I moved this file to data/crime_incidents_2013_plain.xml. This is how the contents
of the file look:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<dcst:ReportedCrimes
xmlns:dcst="http://dc.gov/dcstat/types/1.0/">
<dcst:ReportedCrime
xmlns:dcst="http://dc.gov/dcstat/types/1.0/">
<dcst:ccn><![CDATA[04104147]]></dcst:ccn>
<dcst:reportdatetime>
2013-04-16T00:00:00-04:00
</dcst:reportdatetime>
…

18
 Chapter 1

How to do it…
Now, let's see how to load this file into an Incanter dataset:

1. The solution for this recipe is a little more complicated, so we'll wrap it into a function:
(defn load-xml-data [xml-file first-data next-data]
(let [data-map (fn [node]
[(:tag node) (first (:content node))])]
(->>
(xml/parse xml-file)
zip/xml-zip
first-data
(iterate next-data)
(take-while #(not (nil? %))
(map zip/children)
(map #(mapcat data-map %))
(map #(apply array-map %))
i/to-dataset)))

2. We can call the function like this. Because there are so many columns, we'll just
verify the data that is loaded by looking at the column names and the row count:
user=> (def d
(load-xml-data "data/crime_incidents_2013_plain.xml"
zip/down zip/right))
user=> (i/col-names d)
[:dcst:ccn :dcst:reportdatetime :dcst:shift :dcst:offense
:dcst:method :dcst:lastmodifieddate :dcst:blocksiteaddress
:dcst:blockxcoord :dcst:blockycoord :dcst:ward :dcst:anc
:dcst:district :dcst:psa :dcst:neighborhoodcluster :dcst:busi
nessimprovementdistrict :dcst:block_group :dcst:census_tract
:dcst:voting_precinct :dcst:start_date :dcst:end_date]
user=> (i/nrow d)
35826

This looks good. This gives you the number of crimes reported in the dataset.

How it works…
This recipe follows a typical pipeline for working with XML:

1. Parsing an XML data file

2. Extracting the data nodes
3. Converting the data nodes into a sequence of maps representing the data
4. Converting the data into an Incanter dataset

19
Importing Data for Analysis

load-xml-data implements this process. This takes three parameters:

ff The input filename

ff A function that takes the root node of the parsed XML and returns the first data node
ff A function that takes a data node and returns the next data node or nil, if there are
no more nodes

First, the function parses the XML file and wraps it in a zipper (we'll talk more about zippers in
the next section). Then, it uses the two functions that are passed in to extract all of the data
nodes as a sequence. For each data node, the function retrieves that node's child nodes and
converts them into a series of tag name / content pairs. The pairs for each data node are
converted into a map, and the sequence of maps is converted into an Incanter dataset.

There's more…
We used a couple of interesting data structures or constructs in this recipe. Both are common
in functional programming or Lisp, but neither have made their way into more mainstream
programming. We should spend a minute with them.

Navigating structures with zippers

The first thing that happens to the parsed XML is that it gets passed to clojure.zip/
xml-zip. Zippers are standard data structures that encapsulate the data at a position in a
tree structure, as well as the information necessary to navigate back out. This takes Clojure's
native XML data structure and turns it into something that can be navigated quickly using
commands such as clojure.zip/down and clojure.zip/right. Being a functional
programming language, Clojure encourages you to use immutable data structures, and
zippers provide an efficient, natural way to navigate and modify a tree-like structure, such as
an XML document.

Zippers are very useful and interesting, and understanding them can help you understand
and work better with immutable data structures. For more information on zippers, the
Clojure-doc page is helpful (http://clojure-doc.org/articles/tutorials/
parsing_xml_with_zippers.html). However, if you would rather dive into the deep
end, see Gerard Huet's paper, The Zipper (http://www.st.cs.uni-saarland.de/edu/
seminare/2005/advanced-fp/docs/huet-zipper.pdf).

Processing in a pipeline
We used the ->> macro to express our process as a pipeline. For deeply nested function calls,
this macro lets you read it from the left-hand side to the right-hand side, and this makes the
process's data flow and series of transformations much more clear.

20
 Chapter 1

We can do this in Clojure because of its macro system. ->> simply rewrites the calls into
Clojure's native, nested format as the form is read. The first parameter of the macro is
inserted into the next expression as the last parameter. This structure is inserted into the third
expression as the last parameter, and so on, until the end of the form. Let's trace this through
a few steps. Say, we start off with the expression (->> x first (map length) (apply
+)). As Clojure builds the final expression, here's each intermediate step (the elements to be
combined are highlighted at each stage):

1. (->> x first (map length) (apply +))

2. (->>(first x) (map length) (apply +))
3. (->>(map length (first x)) (apply +))
4. (apply + (map length (first x)))

Comparing XML and JSON

XML and JSON (from the Reading JSON data into Incanter datasets recipe) are very similar.
Arguably, much of the popularity of JSON is driven by disillusionment with XML's verboseness.

When we're dealing with these formats in Clojure, the biggest difference is that JSON is
converted directly to native Clojure data structures that mirror the data, such as maps and
vectors Meanwhile, XML is read into record types that reflect the structure of XML, not the
structure of the data.

In other words, the keys of the maps for JSON will come from the domains, first_name or
age, for instance. However, the keys of the maps for XML will come from the data format, such
as tag, attribute, or children, and the tag and attribute names will come from the domain.
This extra level of abstraction makes XML more unwieldy.

Scraping data from tables in web pages

There's data everywhere on the Internet. Unfortunately, a lot of it is difficult to reach. It's
buried in tables, articles, or deeply nested div tags. Web scraping (writing a program that
walks over a web page and extracts data from it) is brittle and laborious, but it's often the only
way to free this data so it can be used in our analyses. This recipe describes how to load a
web page and dig down into its contents so that you can pull the data out.

To do this, we're going to use the Enlive (https://github.com/cgrand/enlive/wiki)

library. This uses a domain specific language (DSL, a set of commands that make a small set
of tasks very easy and natural) based on CSS selectors to locate elements within a web page.
This library can also be used for templating. In this case, we'll just use it to get data back out
of a web page.

21
Importing Data for Analysis

Getting ready
First, you have to add Enlive to the dependencies in the project.clj file:
(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]
[incanter "1.5.5"]
[enlive "1.1.5"]])

Next, use these packages in your REPL or script:

(require '[clojure.string :as string]
'[net.cgrand.enlive-html :as html]
'[incanter.core :as i])
(import [java.net URL])

Finally, identify the file to scrape the data from. I've put up a file at http://www.
ericrochester.com/clj-data-analysis/data/small-sample-table.html,
which looks like this:

It's intentionally stripped down, and it makes use of tables for layout (hence the comment
about 1999).

22
 Chapter 1

How to do it…
1. Since this task is a little complicated, let's pull out the steps into several functions:
(defn to-keyword
"This takes a string and returns a normalized keyword."
[input]
(->input
string/lower-case
(string/replace \space \-)
keyword))

(defn load-data
"This loads the data from a table at a URL."
[url]
(let [page (html/html-resource (URL. url))
table (html/select page [:table#data])
headers (->>
(html/select table [:tr :th])
(map html/text)
(map to-keyword)
vec)
rows (->> (html/select table [:tr])
(map #(html/select % [:td]))
(map #(map html/text %))
(filterseq))]
(i/dataset headers rows))))))

2. Now, call load-data with the URL you want to load data from:
user=> (load-data (str "http://www.ericrochester.com/"
"clj-data-analysis/data/small-sample-table.html"))
| :given-name | :surname | :relation |
|-------------+----------+-------------|
| Gomez | Addams | father |
| Morticia | Addams | mother |
| Pugsley | Addams | brother |
| Wednesday | Addams | sister |
…

23
Importing Data for Analysis

How it works…
The let bindings in load-data tell the story here. Let's talk about them one by one.

The first binding has Enlive download the resource and parse it into Enlive's internal
representation:
(let [page (html/html-resource (URL. url))

The next binding selects the table with the data ID:
table (html/select page [:table#data])

Now, select of all the header cells from the table, extract the text from them, convert each to a
keyword, and then convert the entire sequence into a vector. This gives headers for the dataset:
headers (->>
(html/select table [:tr :th])
(map html/text)
(map to-keyword)
vec)

First, select each row individually. The next two steps are wrapped in map so that the cells in
each row stay grouped together. In these steps, select the data cells in each row and extract
the text from each. Last, use filterseq, which removes any rows with no data, such as the
header row:
rows (->> (html/select table [:tr])
(map #(html/select % [:td]))
(map #(map html/text %))
(filterseq))]

Here's another view of this data. In this image, you can see some of the code from this web
page. The variable names and select expressions are placed beside the HTML structures that
they match. Hopefully, this makes it more clear how the select expressions correspond to the
HTML elements:

24
 Chapter 1

Finally, convert everything to a dataset. incanter.core/dataset is a lower level

constructor than incanter.core/to-dataset. It requires you to pass in the column
names and data matrix as separate sequences:
(i/dataset headers rows)))

It's important to realize that the code, as presented here, is the result of a lot of trial and error.
Screen scraping usually is. Generally, I download the page and save it, so I don't have to keep
requesting it from the web server. Next, I start the REPL and parse the web page there. Then,
I can take a look at the web page and HTML with the browser's view source function, and I can
examine the data from the web page interactively in the REPL. While working, I copy and paste
the code back and forth between the REPL and my text editor, as it's convenient. This workflow
and environment (sometimes called REPL-driven-development) makes screen scraping
(a fiddly, difficult task at the best of times) almost enjoyable.

See also
ff The next recipe, Scraping textual data from web pages, has a more involved example
of data scraping on an HTML page
ff The Aggregating data from different formats recipe has a practical, real-life example
of data scraping in a table

Scraping textual data from web pages

Not all of the data on the Web is in tables, as in our last recipe. In general, the process
to access this nontabular data might be more complicated, depending on how the page
is structured.

Getting ready
First, we'll use the same dependencies and the require statements as we did in the last
recipe, Scraping data from tables in web pages.

Next, we'll identify the file to scrape the data from. I've put up a file at http://www.
ericrochester.com/clj-data-analysis/data/small-sample-list.html.

This is a much more modern example of a web page. Instead of using tables, it marks up the
text with the section and article tags and other features from HTML5, which help convey
what the text means, not just how it should look.

25
Importing Data for Analysis

As the screenshot shows, this page contains a list of sections, and each section contains a list
of characters:

How to do it…
1. Since this is more complicated, we'll break the task down into a set of
smaller functions:
(defn get-family
"This takes an article element and returns the family
name."
[article]
(string/join
(map html/text (html/select article [:header :h2]))))

26
 Chapter 1
(defn get-person
"This takes a list item and returns a map of the person's
name and relationship."
[li]
(let [[{pnames :content} rel] (:content li)]
{:name (apply str pnames)
:relationship (string/trim rel)}))

(defn get-rows
"This takes an article and returns the person mappings,
with the family name added."
[article]
(let [family (get-family article)]
(map #(assoc % :family family)
(map get-person
(html/select article [:ul :li])))))

(defn load-data
"This downloads the HTML page and pulls the data out of
it."
[html-url]
(let [html (html/html-resource (URL. html-url))
articles (html/select html [:article])]
(i/to-dataset (mapcat get-rows articles))))

2. Now that these functions are defined, we just call load-data with the URL that we
want to scrape:
user=> (load-data (str "http://www.ericrochester.com/"
"clj-data-analysis/data/"
"small-sample-list.html"))
| :family | :name | :relationship |
|----------------+-----------------+---------------|
| Addam's Family | Gomez Addams | — father |
| Addam's Family | Morticia Addams | — mother |
| Addam's Family | Pugsley Addams | — brother |
…

27
Importing Data for Analysis

How it works…
After examining the web page, each family is wrapped in an article tag that contains a
header with an h2 tag. get-family pulls that tag out and returns its text.

get-person processes each person. The people in each family are in an unordered list
(ul), and each person is in an li tag. The person's name itself is in an em tag. let gets the
contents of the li tag and decomposes it in order to pull out the name and relationship
strings. get-person puts both pieces of information into a map and returns it.

get-rows processes each article tag. It calls get-family to get that information from
the header, gets the list item for each person, calls get-person on the list item, and adds
the family to each person's mapping.

Here's how the HTML structures correspond to the functions that process them. Each function
name is mentioned beside the elements it parses:

Finally, load-data ties the process together by downloading and parsing the HTML file and
pulling the article tags from it. It then calls get-rows to create the data mappings and
converts the output to a dataset.

28
 Chapter 1

Reading RDF data

More and more data is going up on the Internet using linked data in a variety of formats
such as microformats, RDFa, and RDF/XML.

Linked data represents entities as consistent URLs and includes links to other databases
of the linked data. In a sense, it's the computer equivalent of human-readable web
pages. Often, these formats are used for open data, such as the data published by some
governments, like in the UK and elsewhere.

Linked data adds a lot of flexibility and power, but it also introduces more complexity.
Often, to work effectively with linked data, we need to start a triple store of some kind.
In this recipe and the next three, we'll use Sesame (http://rdf4j.org/) and the
kr Clojure library (https://github.com/drlivingston/kr).

Getting ready
First, we need to make sure that the dependencies are listed in our Leiningen
project.clj file:

(defproject getting-data "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"

:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]
[incanter "1.5.5"]
[edu.ucdenver.ccp/kr-sesame-core "1.4.17"]
[org.clojure/tools.logging "0.3.0"]
[org.slf4j/slf4j-simple "1.7.7"]])

We'll execute these packages to have these loaded into our script or REPL:
(use 'incanter.core
'edu.ucdenver.ccp.kr.kb
'edu.ucdenver.ccp.kr.rdf
'edu.ucdenver.ccp.kr.sparql
'edu.ucdenver.ccp.kr.sesame.kb
'clojure.set)
(import [java.io File])

For this example, we'll get data from the Telegraphis Linked Data assets. We'll pull down the
database of currencies at http://telegraphis.net/data/currencies/currencies.
ttl. Just to be safe, I've downloaded that file and saved it as data/currencies.ttl, and
we'll access it from there.

We'll store the data, at least temporarily, in a Sesame data store (http://notes.3kbo.
com/sesame) that allows us to easily store and query linked data.

29
Importing Data for Analysis

How to do it…
The longest part of this process will be to define the data. The libraries we're using do all of
the heavy lifting, as shown in the steps given below:

1. First, we will create the triple store and register the namespaces that the data uses.
We'll bind this triple store to the name tstore:
(defn kb-memstore
"This creates a Sesame triple store in memory."
[]
(kb :sesame-mem))
(defn init-kb [kb-store]
(register-namespaces
kb-store
'(("geographis"
"http://telegraphis.net/ontology/geography/geography#")
("code"
"http://telegraphis.net/ontology/measurement/code#")
("money"
"http://telegraphis.net/ontology/money/money#")
("owl"
"http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#")
("rdf"
"http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#")
("xsd"
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#")
("currency"
"http://telegraphis.net/data/currencies/")
("dbpedia" "http://dbpedia.org/resource/")
("dbpedia-ont" "http://dbpedia.org/ontology/")
("dbpedia-prop" "http://dbpedia.org/property/")
("err" "http://ericrochester.com/"))))

(def t-store (init-kb (kb-memstore)))

30
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
Emily to Mrs. Shaen.

Octavia is starting on a three days’ tour among the lakes with Miss
Harris. On Monday evening we had a concert and reading for the
tenants; and a letter from Octavia was read to them, which they all
responded to most beautifully; one of the men made a most touching
little speech in reply. Many of them said they had never enjoyed an
evening so much in their lives; and I have been so much touched and
delighted at several little acts of kindness and consideration towards
me; their silent answer to Octavia’s appeal that they would try to
make the work easier for those who are carrying it on for her.

HOME-SICKNESS
Heatherside, Wellington College,
Woking,
September 28th, 1867.

To Mrs. Nassau Senior.

Thank you so much for the accounts; how beautifully you have
managed them....
It is dreadfully tempting to be so near you all. I long to be amongst
you, if it were only just to feel myself with you for an hour or two.
You seem to me such a blessed company gathered round that dear
old home of ours. But the time will not now seem long before I really
see you, and am once more at work. Remember me to all the tenants.
Tell Mrs. Moirey she must remember I don’t mean to lose sight of
her and hers....
My love to Mrs. Hughes and the children. It is such a comfort to
think of your being back to help them at home, and I like to think of
your cheering them by your uniform brightness as you used to cheer
me.

October 6th, 1867.

Emily to Octavia.
 We had a very nice work class. Andy reads while I attend to the
people. They were anxious to hear about you, and were touched at
your sending the little presents to the children.... I think I have got a
much better set of tenants. M. is very anxious to pay; still I feel it so
uncertain with his health in that state. You know he was a year
without work; and when he got it, he was too weak and gave himself
an internal strain....
It was so nice to see how the pupils had thought of the poor
children, and had brought little presents. Mary had brought an ivy
root and fern roots, and clothes for the work class. Louisa had cut out
and made entirely a lovely dress and jacket for Alice P., and had
dressed some very pretty dolls, and brought some splendid flowers.
Harriet had gathered blackberries and made them into jam. It is so
nice that they remembered and cared for these things in their
holidays.

20, Via dei Serragli, Florence,

October 10th, 1867.

To Emily.

EXPERIENCES ON Here I am safe and sound at last, and very

THE JOURNEY TO
ITALY cheery and bright. Dear Aunt Emily is so kind;
and there is something genial and homelike
about being here. The journey from Chambery was very interesting,
the Mt. Cenis was so impressive; it was too dark for me really to see
it, and perhaps I a good deal misunderstood the things I did see; but
it was very quiet and awful and solemn, sitting up in the banquette,
so wholly alone as I felt, in the near presence of the great peaks and
gulfs and winds and snow; sometimes foaming streams glittered for a
few minutes far below; sometimes a great cloud of mist came slowly
down and wrapped us round; the horses were many of them grey,
and looked very ghostly and unreal under the lamp-light; but their
shadows looked like real black horses tearing along. Altogether, it
was weird and wild, and I liked it. I had a very stupid companion; but
happily he relapsed into perfect silence during the whole time. He
was such a forlorn and stupid young Irishman whom I had picked
up. He had been travelling with two companions, had got out of the
train, and it had gone on without him. He could not speak one word
of either French or Italian, and was going to Rome; they had his
luggage and his passport. He was very tall, and very miserable, and I
had to take pity on him, and do everything for him; but he certainly
was very cowardly. At Turin I was weary, and did not want to have
any breakfast; and I asked an energetic Prussian lady, who spoke
English and Italian, to take him, and see to him, but he wouldn’t go
for a long time; and then, just as all the time was over, he returned
and said he thought he’d better stay by me; so, to my no small
disgust, I had to rouse myself and take him to his breakfast at
Alessandria. However, the best of him was he didn’t speak at all, but
only clung piteously to my heels. By the way, writing of travelling
companions, Aunt Emily just suggests you would be amused to hear
that at Turin I fell in with such a polite and attentive Italian officer,
who travelled with me all the way. He surprised me so much by his
penetration about everything. You know it is rather troublesome to
have an expressive kind of face; and yet it is, I suppose, helpful too.
He was extremely kind about the window, tho’ he was very cold; and
I didn’t say a word, for I knew it was unreasonable to have it open;
but he saw in a moment what I wished, and wouldn’t let me even half
shut it. Then we had a great deal of talk about cities and countries;
and I asked him if he knew London. Long afterwards he said to me,
“You asked me if I knew London; and it was with an accent which
told me you love it much, tho’ you do call it an ugly and dirty city.” I
told him that the worse it was, the more one was bound to help it;
and the more one tried to help it, the more one loved it. He said, “We
soldiers have to leave our country to serve it.” And I said, “Yes, it did
not matter how, but we must all do it.” I kept catching glimpses of
the mountains in the distance, and presently he said, “There is
something out there which pleases you from time to time.” So I told
him what it was; and after that he was so kind in warning me to look
here or there, for the mountains would be in sight.... He behaved
extremely well, and I think he thought I was the queerest creature he
ever saw.... He was rather sneering at the Prussian lady for being une
savante and for travelling alone. I was, looking out of the window
and thinking. He said, “You smile continually; one sees that you
think of what is dear to you. Are you thinking of your country?” So I
just told him I was thinking one could travel alone or do this or that
or anything when one was really sure that God was with one; and
that one often knew it best when one was alone. Then I said all
things, all people, help one. “But,” he persisted, “those who really are
brave because they know this, they do all things with a different
manner, such a manner that all who meet them feel too that they are
in His presence and under His protection.”
Well, I was very thankful for the dear home letters.... I have seen
literally nothing of the city as yet. I am to do the picture for Lady
Abercrombie. Was it not fortunate I did not go on Saturday from
Chambery? A portion of the Mt. Cenis fell and blocked up the road;
the diligences had all to be unloaded, and people and luggage carried
across a torrent and past the blocked portion of the road to other
vehicles beyond.

EXPERIENCES IN
FLORENCE
October 18th, 1867.

Miranda to Octavia.

The houses in Freshwater Place seem getting into much better

order now that Minnie is in town again. The P.’s are so energetic
about the playground, so anxious to make it succeed. P. has been
painting the swings (for which he would only take a trifle). He says a
ground like that is a Godsend to the neighbourhood; and he proposes
putting up a little direction board outside the court that people may
find the way.... Minnie wants to know if she may admit P.’s children
on Sunday. He longs so much for quiet to read his newspaper. I
suppose the playground would be like a garden to the cottage.

Florence,
November 2nd, 1867.

To Emily.

The galleries were closed yesterday, as it was All Saints’ Day; so I

wanted to have a long bright day at Fiesole, or somewhere in the
country, which is my great joy. But it was not to be; we did not get off
till about three, and went to Certosa. Ask F. to tell you what a lovely
place it is; and it looked so lovely in the autumn afternoon and
evening light. A convent on a hill, the approach almost like that to a
castle, so straight and steep, and bounded by such high walls. But the
loveliest view was when we ascended a steep road to the south of it,
and looked beyond it to the setting sun, the great couchant hills
purple and grey beyond its own battlemented wall,—campanile, and
cypresses all dark against the sky; but Florence and the mountains
beyond Florence were bathed in rose mist. Gradually as the light left
the valley it became pale misty blue, the shadow creeping up till it
veiled even the snow-covered peaks themselves. Tell dear A. I am
not, and never have been, disappointed with anything, except a little
perhaps with having to work, after all; but this is very unreasonable.
I have no anxiety, and possibly I am after all better for a little
compulsory action; or I might go to sleep altogether, or take to
thinking too much. As to the country, it might grow upon me; but it
hardly seems to me as if it could, it is so supremely perfectly
beautiful. I have not even missed my beloved grass; for first it would
not fit in with the rest; and second there seems to me to be a kind of
uncultivation or perhaps rather of mountain character given to the
landscape by its absence which has a peculiar charm. I daresay this is
an unreasonable fancy, based on my northern associations of grass
with richness of soil; but it is involuntary and to me specially
delightful, partly as being different, and so not touching me too
much, partly as giving a sense of freedom and air for which I pant.
Then it is quite delicious to an eye that glories so in colour, to see the
great masses of earth, ready to turn to gold or purple or red, or all
these in infinite combinations with brown, and over all the silver
network of the weird olive trees. I fancy I should rather miss the
grass increasingly than decreasingly....
Remember me affectionately to Mrs. P.[59]; dear, good, bright little
George! to think I shall not see him again, and that he is to do no
more service here below;—all young lives that go out so, hint so
distinctly of the life that is to be—I do think of you all so. Has anyone
thanked dear Mrs. Nassau Senior for her letter? and told her of the
pleasure it gave and brought me?... I take the opportunity of writing
when B. is out. I like to be ready to chat and walk with her when she
is here....

HOME-SICKNESS
Florence.

To Emily.

I joined the Cherubini Choral Society here; we are singing some

lovely things of Bach’s and one of Mozart’s. I believe we are to give
our first concert on the 18th.... The anemones are quite wonderful. I
gathered on Sunday every imaginable shade of purple, from blue to
crimson; such a bunch they made, so soft and deep in their
gradations.
I hardly dare, even now, to write of home. I think of it as little as I
can; the abiding sense of it in all its preciousness, and the heart-
hunger for it never leaves me for a moment, but I try to pretend to
myself that the things here are very engrossing and sufficient; and in
a way they are. I have put aside the question of possible wants of one
and another which I might satisfy, sure that I shall some day have a
richer store of help to pour out for them, if I am (as I now believe I
am) gathering strength. Every word mentioning the dear English
people is precious. I glance down the letters for proper names very
eagerly; you are all too good about writing, but there are necessarily
so many you never mention ... and oh so many of the tenants and
playground children ... and I always want more and more about the
people you mention. Do you not mean to send me Ruskin’s letters to
you? I should like to see them. I fancied perhaps you did not send
them, because you thought they would make me gloomy; if they are
gloomy—or might somehow pain me;—but they would not. I know
him too well for that, and I should like to see them.
I have been reading Browning’s “Rabbi Ben Ezra.” I think it one of
the truest things he, or anyone else, has ever written.
Miranda’s letters are so delightful. Her fun always touches me
somehow, and never too much.... So my pride is to be broken every
way, and even those proudly triumphant P. P. accounts are to get
into a mess.
 I am much honoured by dear Mr. Maurice’s interest about my
return; I see S. Ursula[60] never got back; but I think I must give up
all claim to the name, if it depended on the 11,000 virgins; tho’ the
number swells now even here.

Via de Serragli,
January 24th, 1868.

To Emily.

WALK WITH I seize the time when I am bright and

CHILDREN NEAR
FLORENCE hopeful to write to you dear ones at home; and
for once will tell you facts not feelings. I have
just returned from my visit to the S.’s. It has been very delightful....
M. is full of will and temper, and, not understanding any English,
would be wholly unmanageable by me; and I keep a good deal away
from her. But the others, strangely enough, have attached themselves
warmly to me; and there seems no end to the amusements I can
think of for them; and I have so enjoyed it. They are not the least
tiring children, partly because they are quiet; partly, I fancy, because
I have not to try to do other things too, but give my whole thought to
them. It is so soothing to feel the dear little hands in mine, and see
the sweet upturned faces. Besides, it is nice to get on with children. I
don’t like the things I can’t do. We three wandered out into the quiet
poderes which are all round. We turned even away from the view of
Florence over to the quiet distances. I set the children gathering
daisies to make chains to decorate the dolls’ house for a doll’s
birthday which I proposed; and suddenly we came upon a large
purple wild anemone. The view was English in colouring, for it has
been grey and rainy, but all so wholly different on earth that no
sameness of sky or light made it speak to one even in the same
language, of which I am always glad. The children were full of delight
with their walk. It was so nice going with me, they said.
Now good-bye, dearest sister.
 March 1st, 1868.

Emily to Octavia.

It is wonderful how smoothly things go on, and I am able to do the

most important part of the work. The thing I have most to neglect is
going to see the people; but I spent nearly two hours with them; and
they all welcomed me. Poor Alice[61] had scalded her hand and was
very suffering; but, after I had talked to her a little she said, with
tears in her eyes, “Somehow before you came in I was so down-
hearted, but telling you my troubles eases my heart, it does indeed.”

20, Via de Serragli,

March 1st, 1868.

To Emily.

... As to me I am thriving in the most unaccountable way.... This

week I really have had dissipation, and it has done me all the good in
the world....
There was some masquerading at Mrs. Taylor’s, and we were asked
to come in costume. I was gloomy and unwilling; but, seeing “B” “in
for a spree,” entered into it. I wrote to Mrs. Ross for an Eastern
dress; she sent such a magnificent one. It was the admiration of the
whole company; in fact, I am never to hear the last of it, I think. It
was pronounced very becoming.... Then we went to the Corso. It has
been very grand this year; for there is a Society which has offered
large prizes, and done a great deal to promote the matter. It was very
silly, you know; but I tried to forget that, and managed pretty well.
The Turkish Ambassador sent Mrs. Ross his carriage. She did not
know he was going to send it, and it came too late for her to send to
ask me to go with her; so I went with Mrs. Taylor; but we saw Mrs.
Ross looking so lovely and queenly, and child-like, with little Alick by
her. I am to dine with her some day soon, and go to the French play
afterwards. On Friday I fancy we (Miss Mayo and I) start for Pisa;
next week I shall probably spend at Bello Sguardo with the Starks.
They have kept asking me to go; but I have deferred it till the
Orcagna is finished.

14, Nottingham Place,

April 5th, 1868.

To Miss Mayo.

After mentioning a failure to see Ruskin, and George Macdonald

(the latter failure partly due to her painting and partly to her ill-
health), she adds, “But you will know that I am prouder and more
thankful for the special place amongst (and love of) the many who
have few to love them and few to help them, than even for the
friendship of the greatly good; and of these among all classes I have
found so many. Monday, I collected rents, and had such happy talks
with the people.... When people are kind now, it is a great pleasure,
but when, my power of physical effort being all gone, they seem to
feel as if I might yet help them by presence and care, it makes me
thankful to God who has left me some small work to do for Him; it is
almost too much. This I had half hoped to feel in returning. I have far
more than realised the hope that I had.” ...
ENJOYMENT OF (Speaking warmly of Mr. Watson of the
HOME LIFE Society of Antiquaries and his wife she says)
They are very High Church, but not foolishly so. I fancy it is the
refinement and beauty which attract them.
My sisters have asked me so earnestly to leave the main work for
the pupils in their hands that I have done so. All is going on so
beautifully that I have little temptation to meddle either. It seems a
little strange, most so in the mornings, when I no longer read; but
the sense of perfect harmony with them all takes away any kind of
regret from the change.
... (Speaking of the houses she says), “I have now drifted past the
triumphant meeting into full work there, and all its tiresome details;
but with the refreshment of seeing people I love, and the stimulus of
other minds occupied with other thoughts, I meet these details with
less intensity of thought than of old. My sisters are such a rest and
joy to me; I could never tell anyone what they are.” ...
 ... “I have drifted into the old state of intense interest and joy in all
the little world I love and work in; it seems like native air to me; and
it seems to me, in what Matthew Arnold would call my provincialism,
much more interesting (if not important) to see whether a few words
will obtain a holiday for the over-worked teacher whom I love, and
who is wearing herself out for her family, than to know what Louis
Napoleon is doing.”

Probably May, 1868.

To Octavia from her Mother.

Altho’ I was not there I have volunteered (like many other

reporters) to describe yesterday’s gala. It was a complete success; the
prettiest fête that has yet been given; and your sisters were delighted
with the improvement in the children compared with last year. On
Monday evening Minnie and most of the pupils went up to 207[62] to
make wreaths. They found Mr. Ruskin’s and Mrs. Gillum’s flowers
there—both most beautiful in their way. Eliza said the gardener had
asked to deposit them himself in the kitchen, and had laid them
down so carefully, and as if he were so fond of them—worthy servant
of his master! Andy spent the whole day there, and the pupils went
up, as they finished work, to help. The result was splendid; numbers
of lovely wreaths, and a throne made of a chair shape with three
steps. The blind fiddler non est inventus; so they got an organ man,
which did quite as well. Your sisters were delighted with Mr. and
Mrs. Howard ... their sympathy was so genuine—they left with tears
in their eyes. Well, the ceremony began by drawing lots for the
queen, and it fell on Nelly Kinaly. The child took out the wreaths
from the basket; and Florence called the child whom she thought
they would suit, and one of our girls in turn crowned them. Andy
says the children looked so pretty—their untidiness only went for
picturesqueness. They had cakes, biscuits and oranges; but except
one or two boys, the flowers interested them more than the cake.
Florence played at trap with the boys and Mr. Smale.
VISIT TO MISS Derwent Bank,
HARRIS
July 22nd, 1868.

Octavia to Miss Mayo.

The time of my leaving here draws sadly near and I have done so
little—mostly weeding I think, and that is so interesting, it keeps me
out of doors, not standing or walking and yet gives me something to
do. It is quiet and nice and I like the smell of the earth and the
soothing monotony of the movement and thought. We have not been
reading anything of any depth or weight; usually we do here, but
somehow this time we have read scraps of things, and what I should
call decidedly light reading. “Scenes in Clerical Life,” part of Chaucer,
the “Story of Doom” (I am delighted with Laurence), a good deal of
Browning, and a little of Thackeray.

Ben Rhydding, Leeds,

August 3rd, 1868.

To Miss Mayo.

I want Dr. Macleod to let me leave, as I am so without definite

illness now; and it hardly seems right to stay here merely to gain
strength; but they won’t even let me speak on the subject yet; and
nothing is so provoking as to leave things half done; so I must let the
matter be finally decided by them.
(Very warm expressions of admiration and gratitude for Dr.
Macleod.)
2, Ashfield House, Harrogate,
September 20th, 1868.

I came here on Wednesday to see Miss Harris, who has been

seriously ill but is now rapidly gaining strength....
I should like to have seen you while I am still in overflowing health
and so merry; it seems too bad to go to one’s best friends always
when one is broken.
 (Description of Turner’s Norham and Melrose.)
We are reading the Spanish Gipsy aloud. I wonder what you think
of it. To me it seems full of wonderful passages expressive of fresh
fact, and so exquisitely expressed that one longs to remember the
exact words; but the whole thing is disjointed; the story improbable.
I always find it impossible to believe people would have acted as she
makes them. I suppose I am mistaken; but I can never feel the things
the least natural; and yet I should find it hard to say on what ground
I disbelieved them. To me the power of looking all round questions,
and seeing how all view them, is not specially delightful, unless at the
end there comes some deliberate or distinctive sense of reverence or
sympathy with the most right. The perpetual suspense is painful to
me. I feel as if I would say, “See as much, judge as mercifully, as you
can; but show just so much enthusiasm on one side or another, as
would lead to action in real life.” The other temperament seems
always either weak and irresolute, or likely to lead to wrong action.
Now Browning, with all his dramatic power, and turning it upon
such various (and often such low) people, has yet distinct love or
scorn, has definite grasp of some positive good.

MORRIS’S
“JASON”
14, Nottingham Place,
October 4th, 1868.

To a Friend.

We three sisters have had a jolly meeting; and we are anticipating

the arrival of our dear pupils, Mama and Florence, to-morrow.
Dear Alice Collingwood[63] has done wonders; I never knew the
business half so well managed when my sisters were away; and she
has been so happy in the work, and has learnt to know and care for
the people so much.
Have you read Morris’s “Jason”? I have been reading it for the
second time. I am increasingly impressed by it. It is marvellous to me
how any one can so throw himself into so noble a time without
Christianity; the hint of deeper meaning is so telling, and goes so
home, because it is only suggested and kept subservient to the
intense realism of the scenes and incidents. It is a book one believes
from first to last. The accessories are described so beautifully; it is
true poetry.
I know it is very forlorn to depend for intellectual intercourse on
books and absent people. But for you who have so many resources, I
hope it is not quite so bad. At any rate, how you must be feeling
yourself useful. Still I am sorry for you; you seem somehow (all
sensitive people do) to get so much more pain than pleasure out of
your feeling. I wonder whether you are ill-balanced, and your bodies
ought to be more vigorous to match your organisations; or whether
you are, as it were, martyrs, for us to love and look up to, and learn
from and delight in; but appointed, for some inscrutable reason, to
bear a large share of the pain of the world—to be purified to a higher
point than we, until the last sorrow shall be put under your feet.
Any way and every way, God bless and keep you.

14, Nottingham Place,

November 29th, 1868.

To Miss Baumgartner.

We are all assembled again, and very happy.

We have a very large number of pupils, as many as we could take
in; but these are mainly under my sisters’ care, who enjoy the work,
and thrive in it. I only teach the girls a few things, and rejoice in their
bright young life. I give a few drawing lessons, and am managing my
dear houses, which are getting into such excellent order as to be a
great joy, and but little painful care. I am drawing again at last, too,
to my great delight, and am able to see a good deal of my friends, and
to bind up all the links of knowledge of the details of their lives,
broken by my illness and absence. So it is a quiet, beautiful, thankful,
busy, but not oppressed, life.

14, Nottingham Place,

March 7th, 1869.
To Miss Harris.

My dearest Mary,

I have had a most delightful week. The crowning day was last
Sunday, when I dined at Ruskin’s. It was exceedingly interesting. I
had been determined to ask him a little about Greek mythology,
literature and art; and how, without knowledge of Greek, one might
enter into some comprehension of all these; for I have lived long
enough to remember the passionate revolt of our then young
thinkers against the dead formal worship of all that had its origin in
Greece; and now I am interested to notice the men, leading from
weight of earnestness, tho’ educated in all the Gothic and Teuton
sympathies, turning back to Greek thought, and even imagery, as if it
contained nobler symbols of abiding truth than our northern
legends. Yes, even to feel the influence of the Grecian wave myself.
So we got into interesting talk. He told me that there was little
translation of Greek which he knew or cared for; that he had done a
little himself, which will be published with next Tuesday’s lecture;
that Homer, even translated by Pope, taught one a good deal; that
some tales by Cox (do you know them?) were intensely good; but (as
I was pleased to know that I had instinctively felt), Morris’s Jason
was the most helpful almost of all. He sketched for me most
beautifully, a kind of plan of Greek mythology, saying that the deities
who governed the elements were the primary ones; the earth the
sustainer of man; the water governing the ebb and flow of his
fortunes, the two fiery deities earthly and heavenly; and the goddess
of the air the inspirer. He quoted curious parallel thoughts from the
Bible; “the wind bloweth where it listeth.” He told me some strange
things, too, about Minerva giving men strength from winged beings,
and once, when enduing Menelaus with courage to fight Paris, giving
it from a mosquito; whereas most gods give them strength from
quadrupeds that are strong. Round these central deities are grouped
many minor ones; Mercury, the cloud-compeller, often represented
as a shepherd, guides the footsteps of men in life and death.
RUSKIN ON I asked him how far Virgil was too Roman to
GREEK be trusted. He seemed very much pleased to
MYTHOLOGY
find that I could read Virgil, and was fond of
him; it seems that he is very fond. He said moreover that Latin was
untranslateable—being so magnificent a language; whereas Greek,
mainly depending for its interest on thought, could be perfectly well
translated. I found that he and I agreed in liking the 2nd and 7th
books best, he rather inclining to the Infernal Regions and the Fall of
Troy. He told me that the exquisite tenderness between fathers and
sons delighted him above all things in Virgil, and led one to the root
of the main source of Roman greatness in its noblest time.
You will be sorry to hear that Miss Cons can only, at present, give
one day and a half weekly to the work; and that Miss Sterling is so
much interested in what she calls “linking my little affairs to
whatever has life,” that she will not work except near us—nor of
course could Miss Cons do more than this in so short a time.
On Wednesday we are to have our play.[64] We are actually to have
an audience of 200 poor people. Everyone is very kind about it; we
have a splendid room, and all promises well.
Oh, Mary! life and its many interests is a great and blessed
possession. I love it so much.... And yet it seems such a simple, quiet
thing to slip out of it presently; and for other and better people to
take up their work, and carry it on for their day too.

May 9th, 1869.

To Miss F. Davenport Hill.

... The trees are of course very small; but the creepers helped us,
and the playground never looked so pretty. Our new swings were put
up; and three people were entirely occupied with superintending
them the whole time. Each child had a definite time allowed; and all
others were kept out of the way; no easy matter with children so
eager and so unaccustomed to control. The little band acquitted itself
admirably, considering how young it is yet; it is an acquisition. We
had numbers of games of course. The see-saw was crowded all the
time. Two people took charge of it; and it seemed about as much as
they could manage. It was very touching to see the children, when
they first saw me open the gate. Our tenants were to come in first;
and I had to pick them out from the dense mass of eager faces. Such
impatience! as if a few minutes were hours! Such a break of light
came over the face as I caught the eye of a tenant; the “Mary, you
may come,” or “Dickey, you next,” was entirely unnecessary to the
child addressed, but was the signal for others to make way; and thro’
such tiny avenues, or from under bigger girls’ skirts, the tiny
creatures emerged to the wonderful place of flowers and the many
welcoming friends. I was rather proud to see that I was usually
guided by a neater dress or cleaner face to a tenant. Then followed
the admission of a few children coming to classes, or members of the
band or drill classes, but not tenants. And then the mass of children
from the neighbourhood. Oh such a troop! The grown up people
crowded on any place from which they could see. I wished our wall
had been moved, and the rails up, both for the extra space, and that
more people might have seen. All children had flowers, cake, and an
orange on leaving. My conclusion is, the place is really getting into
order.
I had the report from a surveyor on the houses for which we are in
treaty. He says very naïvely, “It seems to me the houses are much out
of repair, tho’ considered by the landlord in excellent condition for
the class of inmates.” He says, too, the property in the
neighbourhood is in excellent condition, and will let well.... Will you
send me a copy of papers respecting boarding out? I should much
like to send them to Mrs. N. Senior. I believe the chances are better
in the country, and the plan more likely to be tried there.
I am glad you think it is best to wait and see the June list for
Macmillan. It will be very odd if the thing ever is published. I am
looking forward so eagerly to throwing the burden of the playground
expenses, at least partially, on our new buildings; they are such a
perpetual worry to me, and for so small a sum it seems a pity to be
annoyed. If the surplus profit of the rooms will, as I hope, pay for the
superintendence, it will make a great difference to me. We hope to
finish the building this week. I feel so ungrateful when I complain of
anything, when all has prospered in this wonderful way. Perhaps I
am a little tired to-night.
 14, Nottingham Place,
April 13th, 1869.

To Mrs. W. Shaen.

I cannot tell you what my people are to me. We are such thorough
friends. Sometimes small actions of theirs go straight to one’s heart,
making me feel how nice our relation to one another is. The other
day I went down the court, once so savage and desolate. I saw two or
three of the worst boys in the neighbourhood looking very happy and
smiling. “Have you seen Mrs. Mayne?” they clamoured eagerly. Mrs.
Mayne is our superintendent there. “She’s got something taking care
of for you.” I found that the boys had walked twelve miles, doubtless
delighted with the expedition, but specially to bring me back a great
quantity of “palm.” And, as I came out carrying it, “Will you have
some more?” “Wait a bit and have some more,” they cried. When I
remembered that these same boys had been our greatest trouble,
defying authority, climbing walls, breaking windows, throwing
stones, with their hands against us in all things, I could not but feel
that we had got on a little, however the houses may fall short in
external perfection of what one longs for them to be. I have hardly
any of the teaching at home; dear Andy and Minnie having thrown
their strength fully into it; so Flo and I only take special classes; but
the bright young life round one is very refreshing; and I grow much
attached to some of the girls;—not the old sense of being any longer
their head; this, you will understand, I am not sorry to resign,
however precious the position was. Meantime, I have my little
sanctum here and go out among my ever-increasing circle of real
friends. My work now is mainly teaching drawing, which I enjoy
much.

IMPROVEMENT
IN THE COURTS
June 7th, 1869.

To Miss Florence Davenport Hill.

... We are having a large meeting in the parish this week to try to
organise the relief given; very opposite creeds will be represented—
Archbishop Manning, Mr. Davies, Mr. Fremantle, Eardley-Wilmot,
and others. I must go myself. I shall try to get Rose to go too....
Lady Ducie writes that she is perfectly engrossed in your book, and
tells me she must get it. She is quite appalled at the state of things in
the workhouse; it seems quite to be weighing on her mind.

June 9th, 1869.

To the Same.

... I daresay one is apt to overrate one’s own work; but one is the
more anxious to have it fairly weighed, and receive all advice from
other people; and I do want to have it fairly considered, and get the
authorities to recognise it. Mr. F., the rector of our district, and the
main mover in the matter, is to call on me to-day. May some power
inspire me with intellect and speech! I have hardly a hope that they
will place me on the Committee. I shall try boldly; but I think no
ladies will be admitted. Mr. F. is happily a friend of Lady Ducie’s.
P.S.—Mr. F. has just been, and will propose my name at the
Committee.

Ben Rhydding,
September 10th, 1869.

To Emily.

... Life here has been a great success every way. It is odd, in a place
like this, to get on so well; but energy and enjoyment are such a
delight to people, they forgive much, where they can secure them and
have these. A large picnic party went to Fountains yesterday. They
begged me to go. I could not, and said, “I will ask all the people, and,
when you are started, you really won’t want me.” “Oh,” said a young,
buoyant Quaker youth, “but we do want you to talk.” ... In pity also
give me some more teaching; it is the only anchor I have, and I shall
be destroyed by dissipation if you don’t preserve me. Oh dear, I have
been writing three hours; and I did so want to do my miniature; for
you don’t know how much I want to finish it.

ALARM AT HER
OWN FAME
6, Clifton Villas,
Bradford,
September 17th, 1869.

To Emily.

To-night there is to be a dinner party here. Dr. Bridges and several

influential people are asked to meet me;—I do feel such a take-in of a
person. I wish someone would explode me; it is so difficult to un-
humbug oneself. It is all taken for extreme modesty (fancy mine!)
and laid to one’s account as so much excellence. A Mr. and Mrs. R.
K., who are looked upon as great guns, are giving a dinner party in
my honour. Really it’s very ridiculous; what I am glad of is that I am
going to see Saltaire, a model village near here which has grown up
round a manufactory, belonging to a Mr. Titus (now Sir Titus) Salt;
no beer shops there, only model cottages, schools, etc.... I’m very
happy, and as bright as can be; but save me from this again! I’m
going to settle down to a steady, quiet old age, if ever the happy time
arrives when I reach home.
 CHAPTER VI
1870–1875
GROWING PUBLICITY OF OCTAVIA’S WORK

The period from 1870–1875, if it contains less of what may be called new
departures in Octavia’s life than the period which preceded it, or that which
followed it, yet can show phases of struggle, constructive work, and the discipline
of trial and opposition, as remarkable as at any time of her life; and it also includes
an important change in her circumstances, which much affected all her subsequent
career.
It may be said, perhaps, that the distinctive characteristic of this period was that
it brought her greater publicity than her previous efforts had produced, and so
answered her question to Ruskin, “Who will ever hear of what I do?”
First of all: the time was one in which a variety of circumstances had been
compelling many, who had not hitherto shown much interest in the poor, to turn
their attention in that direction; while many others, who had been anxious to do
their duty to the poor, had begun to realise that the hap-hazard methods of relief
hitherto in vogue had broken down.
The failure of large Mansion House Funds, which had been, raised in the ’sixties
to meet special distress, had brought home to many workers among the poor the
need of substituting closer co-operation for their isolated efforts. Some of those,
who had realised this need, also perceived that it was necessary to make enquiry
into the conditions of the applicants for relief, before they could discover the best
means of assisting them.
The great variety of characters and ideals and experiences which marked the
people, who were thus temporarily drawn together, naturally tended to produce
considerable collisions; and, in order to understand Octavia’s attitude to the
Charity Organisation Society, one must remember the different difficulties with
which she had to deal. There were, of course, those who had rushed into the
movement, as they would have taken up any other new fashion in dress or mode of
life or locomotion, and who wished to do nothing that would unduly offend
fashionable feeling. These were backed in many cases by people of a higher stamp,
—tender-hearted men and women, who were impressed by the misery of the poor,
and who merely looked to the Society as a newer, and more efficient, relief agency.
At the other extreme were those who thought that organisation and rules could do
everything. Then again the attempts at organisation of charity had led to the
discovery that many so-called charitable societies were utterly corrupt in their
objects, and that many more were unwise and careless in their methods of relief.
This raised a furious desire for radical reform, which at one time threatened to
substitute destruction for organisation. Along with this iconoclastic zeal was a
violent anti-clerical feeling, founded on the belief that the clergy were the authors
and chief abettors of the old irregular system of relief. Into this vortex of
controversy Octavia was unavoidably dragged.
EARLY DAYS OF It will have been seen (and it will have to be
THE C.O.S. reiterated in various forms) that she believed in
personal and sympathetic intercourse with the poor, as
far more important than any organisation; and that, where co-operation and
organisation were necessary, she preferred small local efforts to great centralised
schemes. At the same time, she felt that the giving of money, when dissociated, as
it too often is, from real sympathy, does infinite harm, and should be checked by
reformers of charity.
Both points were emphasised by Octavia in the paper which she read before the
Social Science Association in 1869 on the “Importance of aiding the poor without
alms-giving.”
“Alleviation of distress,” she says, “may be systematically arranged by a society;
but I am satisfied that, without strong personal influence, no radical cure of those
who have fallen low can be effected. Gifts may be pretty fairly distributed by a
Committee, though they lose half their graciousness; but, if we are to place our
people in permanently self-supporting positions, it will depend on the various
courses of action suitable to various people and circumstances, the ground of
which can be perceived only by sweet subtle human sympathy, and power of
human love.”
And again:—
“By knowledge of character more is meant than whether a man is a drunkard or
a woman is dishonest; it means knowledge of the passions, hopes, and history of
people; where the temptation will touch them, what is the little scheme they have
made of their own lives, or would make, if they had encouragement; what training
long past phases of their lives may have afforded; how to move, touch, teach them.
Our memories and our hopes are more truly factors of our lives than we often
remember.”
With regard to her relations to the clergy, I may mention that, while the Charity
Organisation Society was still in its infancy, she began an experiment in a
Marylebone district which was entirely under the guidance of Rev. W. Fremantle,
the Vicar of the parish, now Dean of Ripon. So much was Mr. Fremantle impressed
by the usefulness of this work, that he persuaded Octavia to send in an account of it
to the Local Government Board.
It was also through this work that she became acquainted with Rev. Samuel
Barnett, then curate to Mr. Fremantle, and since so widely known as the promoter
of various good works, and especially as the Founder of Toynbee Hall. It was in
connection with this Committee that Octavia insisted most on the desirability of
substituting employment for relief whenever possible; and out of this plan also
arose the scheme of Charity Organisation pensions, which has since formed so
important a part of the work of the Society.
It may seem strange that, with her preference for individual effort, and for small
local organisations, she should have consented to become a member of the Central
Council of the Charity Organisation Society. But there was much in that position
which chimed in with her aspirations. The Society was, after all, a federation of
local Committees, acting in sympathy with each other, but quite independent of
each other in many of their arrangements. Then, in theory at least, the Committees
acted on the principle that every case was to be dealt with on its own merits; a
principle which, if fully carried out, would have been a great protection against
mere officialism. The Central Council too was a debating Society, for the exchange
of ideas on specially pressing difficulties, rather than a regular governing body.
And, in spite of what I have said of the mixed elements in the Council, it must be
remembered that the membership of that body brought Octavia into touch with
many eminent workers in the reform of charity, amongst whom I would specially
mention the courteous and tactful Secretary, Mr. C. P. B. Bosanquet, whose
services in the stormy birth time of the Society are too often forgotten.
DEFECTS IN THE Nevertheless there were some reforms in the spirit
C.O.S. and methods of the Society to which Octavia found it
necessary to give attention; and, as I often went with
her to the Council meetings, I may claim to know the points which interested her.
Thus she soon began to be alarmed at that iconoclastic zeal of which I have spoken;
particularly as in some who then influenced the Society’s action this zeal had
produced a positive delight in attacking for attack’s sake. A long struggle, in which
Octavia took part, ended in changes which at least modified this unfortunate state
of mind.
Another and marked defect in the organisation of the Council led Octavia to
abandon, for a time, one of her special beliefs in order to enforce another, which
seemed to her of more importance. The Committees of the Society, through which
direct relief work has always been carried on, were divided according to the chief
London districts; and thus some Committees of the richer parishes were much
more able to raise funds in their own neighbourhood than could the Eastern and
Southern Committees. The consequence was that the Central Society was obliged
to supply funds to supplement the needs of the poorer districts; and, in return,
claimed to exercise a control over the distribution of those funds, which could not
be claimed over the richer Committees.
Thus the poorer Committees were deprived of the independence secured by the
richer ones.
In order to equalise these arrangements, it was proposed to centralise all the
funds of the Society in Buckingham Street. Octavia advocated the change; but the
majority of the Council felt that such a change would destroy that local interest in
the work, on which the strength of the Society depended; and subsequent
modifications in the arrangements of the Committees, aided, perhaps, by a
considerable change in the personnel of the Council, did, to some extent, reform
the defect which I have referred to. It may be said generally that, as the aims of the
Society became more coherent and definite, and the chief workers grew more alike
in their fundamental principles, Octavia’s sympathies with the Society increased;
and when Mr. Loch succeeded Mr. Bosanquet as secretary of the Council, her
friendship for the new secretary still further strengthened her approval of the
action of the Society.
Her sympathies with the enquiry traditions of the Society, and with the
restrictions on reckless relief, often startled and repelled some of the more
impulsive philanthropists; but one of the most earnest of them wrote, “I remember
taking to her a typical case for advice, and she gave me what I thought stern advice,
and I demurred. But she was right; and I often thought of it afterwards.”
During this very period, her attention was painfully drawn to the difficulties of
her local and more individual work, and to the dangers of that purely official view
of charitable movements, against which she was always on her guard.
She had published in a magazine an account of the courts which had been placed
under her care; and of course, in explaining the object of her undertaking, she was
obliged to describe the condition of the houses when first she undertook the
management of them. Unfortunately, some fussy person took the article to the
medical officer, with the question, “If these things were so, what were you doing?”
The medical officer was at once seized with a panic, and ordered the destruction of
all the houses in that court. Octavia thereupon went to remonstrate with him; and,
after hearing her explanations, he withdrew the order. But he had to report to the
Vestry, so the matter could not end with that withdrawal. The majority of the
Vestry took the side of their officer; and one zealous vestryman exclaimed that he
hoped they would hear no more of Miss Hill and her houses. The bitterness was so
keen that Octavia feared that the tenants of the court would be affected by the local
opinion. Mr. Bond, however, who took an active interest in the workmen’s club,
which had been formed in the court, explained the circumstances to the men; and
the general feeling of the tenants was drawn to Octavia’s side. Mr. Ernest Hart
undertook to discuss the matter with the medical officer; and gradually the official
feeling changed, or at least was greatly modified. But three incidents bearing on
the affair should be mentioned.
DIFFICULTIES During the controversy, Octavia’s attention was called
WITH VESTRY to the dangers which would come to the court from a
OFFICIALS public house built close to it. Her first idea was to
secure some kind of disinterested management which should prevent the evils of
the ordinary public house; but, finding that, for the time, this was impracticable,
she addressed herself to the work of defeating the licence. This she succeeded in
doing, but one of the J.P.’s, who had specially championed the publican, was so
furious that he addressed insulting remarks to her in reference to her management
of the houses.
 On the other hand she was much cheered by a letter from Ruskin, received
during this crisis. Not long after the first houses were bought he had begun a little
to cool towards the work, partly from not understanding Octavia’s attitude towards
alms-giving; and partly from that horror of London ugliness which led him to think
that any London scheme must fail. But his personal regard for Octavia remained
untouched; and, visiting Carlyle during the crisis, he spoke of Octavia’s work, and
received such a warm expression of admiration from the “Sage of Chelsea,” that he
noted down the words and promptly sent them to Octavia, greatly to her delight.
The third incident refers to the attitude of her friends on the Charity
Organisation Council. Some of them thought that her management of the courts
should be considered as affecting their movement, and that a friendly enquiry into
her methods would strengthen their hands. She disliked the thought of greater
publicity, but reluctantly consented to submit her books and papers to the Special
Committee appointed for this enquiry. Though they were friendly in tone, Octavia
greatly disliked the visits of these gentlemen; and, when they wished to examine
the tenants of the courts to find out the moral effects produced on them by the
changes, Octavia put her foot down, and declined to allow this interference
between herself and her “friends.”
I have given what some may think an undue prominence to this attack on her by
the Marylebone officials; but I have two grounds for that course. One is that it was
the first important exhibition of that officialism which increased in Octavia her
strong dislike of State or Municipal management. The other is that the intensity of
her feeling on the matter brings out a point in her character of which many were
unaware. I remember well that when Mrs. Nassau Senior was smarting under the
attacks on her report on Workhouse Reform, two men remarked that “Miss
Octavia Hill would not have felt such attacks, as Mrs. Senior did.” Both were
intelligent men, and both had some personal acquaintance with Octavia. But both
were mistaken.
It was in the middle of these difficulties and struggles that her attention was
partly diverted from her own work by her interest in the affairs of a friend; and, for
what I believe to have been the only time in her life, she took an active share in an
attempt to return a Member to Parliament. This was in 1874 when Mr. Thomas
Hughes came forward as a candidate for Marylebone. Her personal admiration for
him, dating from the old Christian Socialist days, and strengthened by her
experiences as teacher to his children, decided her to abandon her general
indifference to Parliamentary work; and she declared with her usual vehemence
that they would return him. Canvassers went out from 14 Nottingham Place with
electioneering circulars; and all friends whom Octavia could influence were
pressed into the service. Unfortunately, for reasons which do not concern this
biography, the effort failed; and, by a curious combination of circumstances,
several people were led to attribute Octavia’s zeal to an interest in the cause of
Female Suffrage.
ATTITUDE This mistaken idea seems to make this a proper place
TOWARDS for a short word of explanation of her attitude on this
FEMALE question. The fact is that Octavia never felt the keen
SUFFRAGE interest in the public questions of the day which
animated Miranda; and, since she had discovered that she could do a definite piece
of work for the good of the poor, she had begun to feel a positive dislike for
Parliamentary life, and party politics, as tending to draw people away from
“cultivating their own garden,” into taking part in wider, but less immediately
useful, work. This opinion she felt it specially necessary to emphasise in reference
to women.
First; it was with women that she specially co-operated in her work among the
poor; and her discovery of a new outlet for their energies, and her warm
appreciation of their possible capacity, led her to look on the Female Suffrage
movement as a sort of red herring drawn across the path of her fellow workers,
which hindered them from taking an adequate interest in those subjects with
which she considered them specially fitted to deal. Secondly, even in that pacific
phase of the Female Suffrage movement, there were champions of this cause who
thought it more important to call attention to what women could accomplish than
to undertake regular work. Thus they seemed to promote that intense love of
advertising which Octavia abhorred. Lastly, there were always people who assumed
that one, who had done so much efficient work, must be in favour of a change,
which would enable so many other women less well provided with powers of work
to accomplish more than they could now succeed in doing. And this mistake was
strengthened by the constant confusion between Octavia and her friend Miss
Davenport Hill.
Although she acknowledged in a letter (written from Tortworth and published in
this book) that this indifference to these larger issues deprived her of some
valuable information, and put her at a disadvantage, she always continued, to the
end of her life, to act in these matters rather (as in the Marylebone election) from
motives of personal sympathy with some special adviser than from those carefully
considered reasons which guided her in the work identified with her name.
Of course in the biography of any original thinker or actor one must record
apparent contradictions; and it is rather curious that this same period, which
contains her one interference in a Parliamentary election, is marked also by her
one active attempt to assist in the framing of an Act of Parliament, the Artizans’
Dwellings Bill, which brought her into some opposition to more extreme
individualists than herself. The main part of her action in this matter will be best
brought out by the letters which follow; but there is one point which may be
overlooked, and on which I should specially like to insist. In the very period when
she was enduring such harsh treatment from the medical officer and the Vestry,
she helped in promoting a measure which increased the power both of medical
officers and of local councils, in dealing with houses like those under her charge.
Thus she made it clear that she could see the general advantage of machinery,
which had been, and might be, turned against herself.
It must be remembered that all this trying work was carried on while she was
still engaged in teaching the pupils at the Nottingham Place School; and many of
her friends had felt, for some time, that the effort, needed for the two kinds of
work, was too great a strain on her strength. An offer of pecuniary assistance by a
friend a few years before this time had been gently, but firmly, refused; but, under
Mr. William Shaen’s guidance, a number of wealthy friends succeeded, without her
knowledge, in organising a fund which should make her free for the further
development of the housing-reform schemes. As this plan had been brought into a
definite form before Octavia was aware of it, and as she remembered that one
break down in her health had recently occurred, she felt bound to accept the offer,
under the limitations mentioned in the letter to Mr. Shaen given in this chapter.
And thus she was placed for the rest of her life in a position which raised her out of
the struggles, which had hampered her early years.
In 1875 Miss Louisa Schuyler, President of the State Charity Aid Association,
collected five of Octavia’s Magazine articles, and brought them out in America
under the title of “Homes of the London Poor.” This book was afterwards
published in England, and later on translated into German by H.R.H. Princess
Alice.
DESCRIPTION OF
A FELLOW-
WORKER About 1870.

Octavia to Mr. Cockerell.

I am sending to the East my new assistant, Miss G. By her quiet,

gentle manner and familiarity with the poor and their ways, and
from being firm, kindly and chatty, she has been more help to me
than any assistant has been for many a long day. She has all the
powers I have not, and has filled in my deficiencies in B. Court in a
way that had made me look forward to working with her very much.
Difficulties vanished at her touch; she had always time to chat with
the people, knew all the little news which throws so much light on
character, noticed small excellence or neglect about the workman’s
doings, and kept much of the detail right, leaving me free for the
deeper personal intercourse with the people that I happen to get to
know best, and to meet the greater difficulties of some of their lives. I
shall miss her sorely there; while I am there, I could have worked
well with her; she would have done all the essential work I do, if not
all, at great cost. I am glad to give her to the East; she lives there, the
need there is far greater, and it is all right she should go, we must
train the new workers here. It is right she goes, and that is enough.
 About 1870.

Mr. Barnett to Octavia.

I am just back from an evening with the men. I can’t help writing
to tell you of their talk. They were all of one mind in approving of
your system. “It is charity, and it is not charity,” said one man. “It is
charity because it is human kindness; and it is not charity because it
does not make people cringing.” Another said, “We had heard that
none but your supporters spoke; for every complaint brought out
more clearly what you had done.” A third thought that they ought to
get up a testimonial to you.

November 23rd, 1870.

To Miss F. Davenport Hill.

I send a list of my appointments as they stand at present; of course

I can’t bind myself to them all; but they show the probabilities.
Thursday.—9 till dark, at Hampstead, drawing.
7 o’clock Tenants’ children’s party (I could leave them for an hour
or so).
Friday.—9–1 at home drawing.
1–1½ at Walmer St. receiving applicants.
¼ to 2 to ¼ to 3 drawing class at home.
¼ to 3 to 4 Walmer St. (if possible) visiting.
4 to 6 ladies come to see me about work at home.
Evening—Half-year’s accounts for Drury Lane.
Invited to dine out—don’t expect to go.
Saturday.—9½ to 11 Latin class at home.
11 to 1 Committee at 151, Marylebone Rd.
Afternoon Walmer St. and week’s accounts.
 7 to 10½ Collecting savings at —— Court.
Saturday evening, December 3rd, is our party for our old tenants
here. Oh! do come, if you possibly can; I shall so specially want you. I
cannot tell you how I want to talk to you.

A JOKING LETTER
January 3rd, 1871.

To Miranda.

Your humble servant, the writer, is in good health and spirits, but
is growing so deeply devoted to the delights of her own sweet society,
that she is somewhat alarmed, and fears that on your return she may
be found to have lost the power of speech.
To such tremendous reactions does Nature at times lead us!!! The
circle of interest grows also narrower daily, (barring Walmer Street).
She cares for nothing and nobody beyond her reach, while she sits in
her beloved arm-chair.[65]
Entre nous, however, I think there is still somewhere some little
tenderness in her heart for her respected and absent relatives.
I don’t know how to sign myself, my persons being hopelessly now
in a jumble; so beg you with your ordinary penetration to discover
The Writer.

14, Nottingham Place, W.,

April 24th, 1871.

To Matthew Davenport Hill.

I was so much touched and delighted with your letter. Words, such
as those from such as you, do so much to help on our way those of us
who are struggling, somewhat alone, to meet and master the
difficulties that beset us. What I am trying to do is simply in my eyes
a bit of adult education or reformatory work, among a few people
corrupted by gifts. It seems to me that, if we will give them a little
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